what’s been happening…

I am pleased to announce the release of EAC10: Guidelines for the use of Airborne Laser Scanning (Lidar) in Archaeology!

With more than 40 authors and contributors these guidelines bring together decades of experience from across Europe and provide detailed examples of good practice. A must-read for anyone working with Airborne Laser Scanning (Lidar) in the cultural heritage sector.

Download the full volume from Zenodo and please get in touch if you have any questions.

In January 2025 we launched the Ridgeway Lidar Portal, part of the The Historic Ridgeway Project. The aim of the wider project is to look at the condition of the archaeological monuments in the central section of the route in Oxfordshire and West Berkshire between the Wiltshire border to the west and Nuffield, near Wallingford, to the east.

The lidar portal provides citizen scientists with the opportunity to map features relating to the landscape of the Ridgeway from the Environment Agency lidar data and contribute these transcriptions back to the local Historic Environment Records.

At the 2023 Aerial Archaeology Annual Conference in Zagreb, I was able to present the results of the Characterising the Community survey which was undertaken earlier in the year on behalf of the European Archaeological Council.

The aim of the survey was to provide a baseline of how remote sensing and aerial archaeology is being undertaken across Europe and to identify the opportunities and barriers within the sector so we can develop the sector accordingly.

The full talk is available to stream via the AARG YouTube Channel.

I am super excited to reveal that our CIfA Approved courses, supported by Air Photo Services will be back at the Shaftesbury Centre, Swindon later this year!

We’re relaunching with our flagship Making the Most of Lidar and Advanced Lidar courses in October and November respectively, with QGIS for Desk Based Assessments and Lidar at the Desk and Field to follow in spring 2024 (and if you can’t wait for spring don’t forget our online QGIS course via learnlidar.com).

We’ve really missed leading these sessions and look forward to bring our refreshed content to you all. Don’t miss out – book your spaces now!

I was pleased to be able to present at CIfA 2023 in the “International cultural heritage: applying professional standards and skills in challenging environments” session.

The session itself was convened by the International Practice Special Interest Group and was really a thought provoking look at the challenges around developing standard in the UK and beyond.

In my talk, I introduced the EAC Lidar Guidelines project and spoke specifically to the way in which the project has been developed to be as inclusive as possible, looking at the benefits and challenges of co-working across a continent.

If you are interested you can watch the talk here.

Through the spring of 2023 I have been working on a citizen science portal for the Chase and Chalke Landscape Partnership. The aim was to provide a user-friendly mapping tool to allow volunteers to access 300km² of high resolution lidar data and create records for potential archaeological features. The site and mapping portal were designed in partnership with Artychoke Graphic Design and Steve Smith.

The portal builds on the experience of several previous and ongoing citizen science projects such as the Kent and Surrey lidar portals and the Chilterns Beacons project, using the Historic Environment Record Open System (HEROS) as the data collection and mapping tool.

In addition to the lidar visualisations the portal features, historic maps, aerial photos, HER and scheduled monument data. Unique to this project is a complete online training course for volunteers, covering all the background and practical information they need to understand the lidar data and read the landscape. Volunteers can undertake this training flexibly to suit their availability, making the project accessible to many more people and the community is also supported by monthly Zoom meet-ups.

If you are interested in joining the volunteer group why not take a look at our introductory webinar for more information?

Archwilio is a Wales-wide bi-lingual database of archaeological and historical information. First launched in 2010, the website was a pioneer of public access to Historic Environment geospatial records.

Fast forward 12 years and although the archaeological records themselves were refreshed nightly, the website and mapping were in need of a remodel with users reporting that they loved Archwilio but found it difficult to use to its full potential.

PTS Consultancy worked alongside Artychoke Graphic Design and Steve Smith, HEROS developer, to refresh the website and mapping functions. For the first time an extensive help section with video demonstrations was also provided.

We’re really proud of the refreshed site, why not go and take a look for yourself at archwilio.org.uk

Working for the EAC Remote Sensing Working Group, PTS Consultancy have been tasked with creating Guidelines for the Use of Lidar in Heritage Management across Europe. The guidelines will be based on the template of the successful EAC Geophysical Survey Guidelines.

We propose to actively draw together the experience of colleagues across Europe and form a working group to make sure contributions are as relevant as possible to the whole sector.

We began work in spring 2022 with an online survey of heritage professionals across Europe and kicked-off the guidelines project with an introductory seminar in July, followed by two detailed seminars in October and November 2022.

More than 50 professionals have offered their time and expertise to co-author the guidelines Since January 2023 the authors have been working to draft sections of the document with the aim of presentation to the EAC in Spring 2024.

To find out more please contact Rebecca.

We are thrilled to announce that we have dates for our lidar courses in partnership with Level 5 Supplies.

In 2022 we launched a range of specialist training courses, designed to support lidar sensor use and integration accelerate the tricky early stages of integration. The one and two day courses offer the ideal combination of theory and practice, ensuring you develop a sound working knowledge of LiDAR hardware and software. Learn how to get started with generating, recording and interpreting point clouds for robotics, surveying and autonomous systems.  It will be an exclusive opportunity to understand the fundamentals of digital 3D LiDAR technology with the Level Five Supplies team and expert course leader, Dr. Rebecca Bennett.

Introductory course – for Project Managers, Junior Technicians, non-technical analysts and consultants, decision-makers.

Integrators course – for Product engineers, Software engineers, Technicians, Developers, Technical Consultants and Researchers. 

To find out more and express your interest in attending visit the Level Five Supplies Website

It is with great sadness that we heard of the death of LAStools developer Martin Isenburg in September 2021.

I have known and worked with Martin for many years, using LAStools as the foundation of our Advanced Lidar Course and being fortunate enough to teach alongside him in Poznan at the LITA workshops in 2013 and 2014.

At the Aerial Archaeology Research Group conference on the 17th September 2021 I was privileged to be asked to share a few words in memory of Martin and his contribution to the use of lidar in archaeology. I have posted these here to capture a small part of his legacy and my gratitude.

All of our in-person training courses for historic environment professionals are currently suspended due to the global pandemic.

We are working hard to adapt some elements of our training model online, but as we all know remote training isn’t quite the same! We do not expect to be running courses in person until Spring/ Summer 2022. Please bear with us and drop us a line if you have any queries, need advice regarding remote sensing or would like to be added to our contact list for future courses.

All the best, and remember in the words of Sandi Toksvig, “we will get past this“

Rebecca

LinkedIn Profile